BACKGROUND: Previous research has reported that sexual harassment can lead to reduced mental health. Few studies have focused on sexual harassment conducted by clients or customers, which might occur in person-related occupations such as eldercare work, social work or customer service work. This study examined the cross-sectional association between sexual harassment by clients or customers and depressive symptoms. We also examined if this association was different compared to sexual harassment conducted by a colleague, supervisor or subordinate...

BACKGROUND: Globally school-age children, adolescents and young adults bear the highest burden of schistosomiasis. When developing a specific intervention to improve community's knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAPs), existing KAPs must be taken into account. Therefore, this study was designed to determine schoolchildren's KAPs on schistosomiasis in the study area. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Busanga and Kibuyi villages involving 513 schoolchildren...

BACKGROUND: Allowing a broader range of trained health workers to deliver services can be an important way of improving access to safe abortion care. However, the expansion of health worker roles may be challenging to implement. This study aimed to explore factors influencing the implementation of role expansion strategies for non-physician providers to include the delivery of abortion care. METHODS: We conducted a multi-country case study synthesis in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nepal, South Africa and Uruguay, where the roles of non-physician providers have been formally expanded to include the provision of abortion care...

BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity are growing health problems both worldwide and in Malaysia due to such lifestyle changes as decreased physical activity (PA), increased sedentary behavior and unhealthy eating habits. This study examined the levels and patterns of PA among normal-weight and overweight/obese adults and to investigate the association between PA level and overweight/obesity in Malaysian adults. METHODS: This study used data from the 2015 National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS), a nationwide cross-sectional survey that implemented a two-stage stratified random sampling design...

BACKGROUND: Medicines are commonly accessed and used for management of illness in children without a prescription. This potentially increases the risk of unwanted treatment outcomes. We investigated medicine use practices in management of symptoms of acute upper respiratory tract infections among children (≤12 years) in households in Nakawa division, Kampala city. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 390 randomly selected children. Data on use of medicines in children (≤12 years) during recent episode of acute upper respiratory tract infection was collected from their care takers using an interviewer administered questionnaire...

BACKGROUND: European Union public healthcare expenditure on treating smoking and attributable diseases is estimated at over €25bn annually. The reduction of tobacco consumption has thus become one of the major social policies of the EU. This study investigates the effects of price hikes on cigarette consumption, tobacco tax revenues and smoking-caused deaths in 28 EU countries. METHODS: Employing panel data for the years 2005 to 2014 from Euromonitor International, the World Bank and the World Health Organization, we used income as a threshold variable and applied threshold regression modelling to estimate the elasticity of cigarette prices and to simulate the effect of price fluctuations...

BACKGROUND: Catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) puts a heavy disease burden on patients' families, aggravating income-related inequality. In an attempt to reduce the financial risks of rural families incurring CHE, China began the New Rural Cooperative Medical System (NCMS) on a trial basis in 2003 and has raised the reimbursement rates continuously since then. Based on statistical data about rural families in sample area of Jiangsu province, this study measures the incidence of CHE, analyzes socioeconomic inequality related to CHE, and explores the influences of the NCMS on the incidence of CHE...

BACKGROUND: Childhood overweight and obesity is a global public health challenge. Primary prevention initiatives targeting parents have been called for to encourage a positive feeding environment and healthy eating habits that may lay a good foundation for future health. At the same time, there is a need for interventions which combine accessibility and scalability with cost effectiveness. Today's parents are extensive Internet-users, but only a few randomized controlled trials have investigated the use of Internet to promote healthy eating habits in early childhood...

BACKGROUND: Current Canadian evidence illustrating the health benefits and cost-effectiveness of caregiver-friendly workplace policies is needed if Canadian employers are to adopt and integrate caregiver-friendly workplace policies into their employment practices. The goal of this three-year, three study research project is to provide such evidence for the auto manufacturing and educational services sectors. The research questions being addressed are: What are the impacts for employers (economic) and workers (health) of caregiver-friendly workplace policy intervention(s) for full-time caregiver-employees? What are the impacts for employers, workers and society of the caregiver-friendly workplace policy intervention(s) in each participating workplace? What contextual factors impact the successful implementation of caregiver-friendly workplace policy intervention(s)? METHODS: Using a pre-post-test comparative case study design, Study A will determine the effectiveness of newly implemented caregiver-friendly workplace policy intervention(s) across two workplaces to determine impacts on caregiver-employee health...

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis remains an important disease which mainly affects the majority of vulnerable individuals in society, who are subjected to poor living conditions and difficulties to access the services of public health. Under these circumstances, the present study aims to understand patients' perception in relation to the influence of individual and social vulnerabilities on the adherence to tuberculosis treatment. METHODS: A qualitative descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in one large municipality at the state of Paraíba, Northeast of Brazil...

BACKGROUND: In 2004, routine varicella vaccination was introduced in Germany for children aged 11-14 months. Routine measles vaccination had already been introduced in 1973 for the same age group, but coverage is still too low (<95%) in some areas to eliminate measles. The present study assessed varicella and measles vaccination coverage and determinants of parental acceptance in two study regions, situated in Northern and Southern Bavaria (Germany). METHODS: From 2009 to 2011, annual cross-sectional parent surveys were performed on random samples of 600 children aged 18-36 months in the Bavarian regions of both Munich and Würzburg...

BACKGROUND: Identifying factors associated with recommended physical activity (PA) levels are critical in efforts to combat the obesity epidemic and related comorbidities. METHODS: We conducted cross-sectional analyses of college students (n = 490) enrolled in a large southern state university in October of 2014. Our aim was to identify sociodemographic characteristics, technology use, and sleep patterns among college students and their independent relationship to recommended PA...

BACKGROUND: A growing proportion of adolescents have poor cardiovascular health behaviors, including low levels of physical activity and high levels of sedentary behavior, thus increasing the likelihood of poor heart health in later years. This study tested the hypothesis that low perceived neighborhood safety would be associated with low levels of physical activity and high levels of recreational sedentary behavior in high-school students. METHODS: Using cross-sectional, weighted data from the 2015 Pennsylvania (USA) State and Philadelphia city Youth Risk Behavior Survey, multivariable logistic regression modeling was used to examine the association between perceived neighborhood safety, and physical activity levels and recreational screen-based sedentary behavior time respectively, while controlling for potential confounders...

BACKGROUND: Lay health workers (LHWs) are increasingly used to complement health services internationally. Their perceptions of the interventions they implement and their experiences in delivering community based interventions in India have been infrequently studied. We developed a novel LHW led intervention to improve anemia cure rates in rural community dwelling children attending village day care centers in South India. Since the intervention is delivered by the village day care center LHW, we sought to understand participating LHWs' acceptance of and perspectives regarding the intervention, particularly in relation to factors affecting daily implementation...

BACKGROUND: Despite sub-Saharan Africa [SSA] constituting just 12% of the world's population, the region has the highest burden of HIV with 70% of HIV infection in general and 80% of new infections among young people occuring in the region. Diverse intervention programmes have been implemented among young people but with minimal translation to behavior change. A systematic review of Behavior Change Interventions [BCI] targeting adolescents in SSA was therefore conducted with the objective of delineating this intervention vis-a-vis efficacy gap...

BACKGROUND: Understanding the relationship between increasing educational attainment and mortality reduction has important policy and public health implications. This systematic review of the literature establishes a taxonomy to facilitate evaluation of the association between educational attainment and early mortality. METHODS: Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched Ovid Medline, Embase, PubMed and hand searches of references for English-language primary data analyses using education as an independent variable and mortality as a dependent variable...

BACKGROUND: Asthma remains a leading cause of illness, where primary care can assist to reduce hospitalisations through prevention, controlling acute episodes, and overall management of asthma. In Victoria, Asthma hospitalisations were as high as 3.1 hospitalisations per 1000 population in 1993-94. The primary aims of this study are to: determine if changes in asthma hospitalisations have occurred between 2010 and 2015; determine the key factors that impact asthma hospitalisation over time; and verify whether rural and urban asthma hospitalisations are disparate...

BACKGROUND: Hearing loss remains a neglected public health issue in the rural and agricultural communities in the United States and therefore, promotion of a low-cost hearing screening may be important for these underserved populations. The major objectives of our study were to assess feasibility of a low-cost telephone-administered hearing test in rural Indiana and to identify the challenges, barriers and viable implementation strategies associated with this test. Also, we evaluated whether a focus group session could change the hearing health attitude of rural residents...